page_title: Isle of Wight Railway
section_title: Extending to Ryde Pier
hierarchical_section_title: Isle of Wight Railway / Extending to Ryde Pier
caption_attribution_description: English: Ryde Esplanade station
context_page_description: The Isle of Wight Railway was a railway company on the Isle of Wight, United Kingdom; it operated 14 miles of railway line between Ryde and Ventnor. It opened the first section of line from Ryde to Sandown in 1864, later extending to Ventnor in 1866. The Ryde station was at St Johns Road, some distance from the pier where the majority of travellers arrived. A tramway operated on the pier itself, and a street-running tramway later operated from the Pier to St Johns Road. It was not until 1880 that two mainland railways companies jointly extended the railway line to the Pier Head, and IoWR trains ran through, improving the journey arrangements.
  An independent company built a branch line from Brading to Bembridge, and the IoWR operated passenger trains on the line from 1882, and later absorbed the owning company.
  The IoWR was itself absorbed into the Southern Railway in the "grouping" of 1923.
  The Bembridge branch closed in 1953, and in 1966 the Ryde Pier Head to Ventnor line was truncated to terminate at Shanklin. This was electrified, and former London Underground tube train stock was brought into use on the line; this arrangement continues to the present day.
context_section_description: The ​1 ¹⁄₄ mile horse tramway from Ryde Pier to the IoWR St John's Road station was overwhelmed by the numbers of passengers during the summer months, and many proposals were put forward for the construction of a railway. Delegations of local people in the island attended meetings with a joint committee of the LSWR and LBSCR, and they demanded a proper railway at Ryde. The two mainland companies had collaborated in forming a joint connection to Portsmouth on the mainland and saw that their business to the Isle of Wight was limited by the poor connection at Ryde, so they acceded to the idea, and agreed to construct the link themselves.
  A Bill was submitted to the 1877 session of Parliament for powers to build a widened pier and a railway to St John's Road, in tunnel for much of the way from the Esplanade. The mainland companies intended to operate the trains themselves as far as St Johns Road; the Island companies would take them on from there. The South Western and Brighton Railway Companies (Isle of Wight and Ryde Pier Railway) Bill passed on 23 July 1877. On further consideration it was agreed that the IWR and R&NR would have running powers to the Pier Head and work their own trains through; they would pay a toll of 3d per passenger booked to or from Ryde, including St Johns Road. Construction began during 1878 and took two years to complete; the St Johns Road level crossing was replaced by a bridge. The difficulty of passing the new line under the Esplanade, considered an important beauty spot in Ryde, led to the line being built with a low headroom (at 12 ft 3in); this was to limit the introduction of some traction designs in later years. IoWR trains began working to Ryde Esplanade station on 5 April 1880 and to Ryde Pier Head on 12 July 1880; the horse tramway was shortened to serve the length of the pier only. The new railway did not carry goods traffic.
  The Pier was unique in the United Kingdom in having a complete railway station at its seaward end; the railway on the pier formed a single signalling section, from Pier Head to Esplanade.
  Five or six steamers could berth at the pier simultaneously. The Port of Portsmouth and Ryde United Steam Packet Company operated the ferry between Portsmouth and Ryde, but in 1879 the LSWR and LBSCR secured an Act authorising the raising of £50,000 each to begin a competing service. In fact the ferry company decided to sell its business to the railway companies, and it did so in 1880.
  At Ryde, the opening of the LSWR/LBSCR joint railway in 1880 at least meant that passengers could board a through carriage there for Ventnor or Newport. The IoWR claimed compensation for the 'injurious' effects of the railway on its property at St John's Road. A refreshment room at St Johns Road would suffer loss of business, they claimed, The issue went to arbitration and the IoWR was awarded £1,033. The change revolutionised passenger transport to the island and Portsmouth became the principal mainland access point.
  The pier tramway was converted to electric traction in 1886; the electricity was generated by an Otto gas engine and a Siemens dynamo, an arrangement that continued until 1927.
caption: A train at Ryde Esplanade in 1964
exif: {"Image PhotometricInterpretation": "2", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "1200", "Image YResolution": "1200", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop Elements 3.0 Macintosh", "Image DateTime": "2005:10:02 11:55:04", "Image ExifOffset": "186", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2005:10:02 11:22:06", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1532", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1038"}